Obligation and Opportunity

In the years between Confederation and the Depression nearly 500,000 Maritimers left their homes to work in the United States or other parts of Canada. Why they left and how their departure affected the region's economy have long been debated but, until now, a major component of that exodus has been largely ignored. In Obligation and Opportunity Betsy Beattie addresses this oversight, examining the lives of the tens of thousands of single Maritime women who left to work in Boston between 1870 and 1930.